Kenya's Police Commissioner Major General Mohammed Hussein Ali on Tuesday dismissed reports that he is serving under a contract that is due to expire in April.The Police Chief said he is serving a constitutional office as a Presidential appointee, and will only leave office at the discretion of President Mwai Kibaki.
Major General Ali said it is the prerogative of the president to hire and fire occupiers of his office as stipulated in Section 108 of the constitution of Kenya.“I serve under the discretion of the President and therefore I am not under any contract,” he said.
Responding to questions from journalists when he toured Kabete police station in Nairobi, Major Gen Ali said that the government had a lot of confidence in him and vowed to continue with his work of enforcing the law.“I dare say yes, it (the government) has confidence in me,” he said. There have been reports that the police chief was serving a contract of three years which was due to expire next month, upon which he would return to the army or be appointed as an ambassador.
Major Gen Ali has served as Police commissioner for six years, since April 2003, when he was picked up from the army and appointed to replace the late Edwin Nyaseda.Some sources within the police department had speculated that the Police Commissioner was to be replaced by three senior officers, who were recalled to Police Headquarters last month.They include the former head of police operations David Kimaiyo, who was recalled to police headquarters last month after serving as an under secretary at the Ministry of National Heritage, where he was seconded
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He is currently serving as coordinator of the National Focal Point on Small Arms, an initiative of the police charged with the sole responsibility of monitoring and stopping the use of illicit firearms.Also recalled was Senior Deputy Police Commissioner Peter Eregai, who initially headed the National Focal Point, and Patrick Ochieng, who is a Deputy Commissioner of Police who had been seconded to other government offices.
He is currently serving as coordinator of the National Focal Point on Small Arms, an initiative of the police charged with the sole responsibility of monitoring and stopping the use of illicit firearms.Also recalled was Senior Deputy Police Commissioner Peter Eregai, who initially headed the National Focal Point, and Patrick Ochieng, who is a Deputy Commissioner of Police who had been seconded to other government offices.
The speculations were heightened following the recalling of former director of police operations David Kimaiyo and senior officers Peter Eregai and Patrick Ochieng. Mr Kimaiyo was deployed to the Small Arms section while both Mr Eregai and Mr Ochieng were posted to the police headquarters to replace some of the retiring officers there.
Major Gen Ali described the move to recall the senior officers as normal and warned the media to stop speculation. “Recalling of these police officers is a normal police procedure, there is no cause to worry,” he said.
The police boss also revealed that the government had extended the contracts of three senior police officers who were due to leave office on March 31, upon expiry of a one-year contract that they were given after attaining the mandatory age of 55 in March last year.They include Nairobi Provincial Police chief Njue Njagi, his deputy Julius Ndegwa and Nyanza Provincial Police chief Antony Kibuchi.“I have three senior police officers who were due to retire at the end of this month, but their contracts have been extended for one year,” he said.
It remained unclear if the three officers would continue serving even after completing the one-year contract extension following a recent gazette notice by the Public Service Minister Dalmas Otieno, extending the mandatory retirement age of civil servants from 55 to 60.
It should however be remembered that Major Hussein was the only Commisioner to have come directly from the Kenyan Army to head The Kenya Police. His style of no nonsense has highly reduced crime rate in the country.
